WhiteBoard News for Friday, January 3, 2003

Edgewater, New Jersey (AP):

Mayor Bryan Christiansen is suing himself. 

He and Borough Council President Neda Rose voted as members of the planning board to sue the mayor and council in November over affordable housing. 

Thus, they are plaintiffs and defendants in the same lawsuit. And that has local government somewhat confused in this Bergen County community. 

"There is no conflict," Christiansen told The Record of Bergen County said after a recent council meeting where he compared the legal bills from attorneys for both the plaintiffs and the defendants in the case. "The planning board decided to challenge the council's actions, and I agreed with them." 

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 25, alleges that the council didn't follow the proper procedure when it passed an ordinance requiring developers to create affordable housing units within new apartment and condominium complexes. 

The four council members named in the lawsuit as defendants want a judge to decide whether someone can, in fact, be a plaintiff and a defendant at the same time. 

"You can't sit on both sides of the fence," said Councilwoman Nancy Merse. "When the mayor and council president vote to sue the mayor and council, that's a conflict." 

She said Christiansen and Rose should have recused themselves when the planning board voted to sue. 

Merse and three other council members were angered last month when Christiansen and Rose refused to leave a meeting that the four members were trying to have with their attorney to discuss the case privately. 

"You can't be privy to both strategies of a lawsuit," Councilwoman Mary Hogan said. 

But Christiansen says he has a right to sit in on any of the attorney's meetings because, as an elected official, he owes it to his constituents. 

"I was elected mayor of this borough," Christiansen said. "Nobody throws me out of meetings." 

Because Christiansen and Rose would not leave the closed meeting, attorney Doug Doyle held private meetings with each of the four council members. 

Borough attorney Robert Regan said state law requires that the mayor and a council member serve on the planning board. He, too, said a judge must untangle the mess.
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Bangkok, Thailand (Reuters):

Thailand's health ministry will launch a troupe of specially trained bosom-enhancing dancers on Valentine's Day (news - web sites) to show women how to boost their bust lines without resorting to ill-fitting and often expensive bras. 

Pennapa Subcharoen, deputy director-general of the ministry's department of traditional medicine, said Thai women had been bombarded with images of big-busted women via the media and many felt they were inadequate. 

"Many women are not aware that wearing an appropriate size of bra and regularly taking bosom-firming dance can make their wish come true," Pennapa said. 

"So we are training 12 pairs of instructors to teach women how to take care of their breasts and we plan to launch them on Valentine's Day nationwide," she said. 

She said many bras on the market were inappropriate for Thai women and wearing bras of the wrong size could also be harmful over a long time. 

She said each dance team would consist of a small-chested and a large-chested instructor to provide bosom-firming dance lessons at state-run sports centers starting on February 14. 
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Edmonton, Canada (Reuters):

Two would-be Canadian thieves learned the hard way on New Year's Day that knowing how to drive a car is a prerequisite for stealing one. 

Police said the two males accosted a pizza delivery man in northeast Edmonton, Alberta, early Wednesday and demanded the four pizzas he was carrying as well as cash. 

The bandits, aged 17 and 18, apparently changed their minds at one point and jumped into the man's car. 

But their getaway was foiled because the 17-year-old behind the wheel did not know how to drive a stick shift. 

Flummoxed by the manual transmission and clutch, the duo then went back to their original plan to commandeer the pizzas, Edmonton Police spokesman Wes Bellmore said. 

"It was a toss-up between pizzas and the car, and they knew how to operate pizzas," Bellmore said. 

When officers soon arrived on the scene, they spotted one of the suspects entering the home where the pizzas were to be delivered. 

Both were arrested and have been charged with robbery and theft under C$5,000 ($3,197). 

Police also recovered the pizzas. 
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